Tools for removing and fitting back plates of watches and watch crystals



Aug. 25, 1964 0F WATCHES AND WATCH CRYSTALS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 13, 1962 Aug. 25, 1964 J. SHIFFMAN 3,145,459

' TOOLS FOR REMOVING AND FITTING BACK PLATES I OF WATCHES AND WATCH CRYSTALS Filed Sept. 13, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i 1 I i I ILL.

United States Patent 3 145 459 TOOLS FOR REMoviNd AND FITTING BACK PLATES or WATCHES AND WATCH cars TALS Jerome Shifiman, 128 Carthage Road, Scarsdale, N.Y. Filed Sept. 13, 1962, Ser. No. 223,444 1 Claim. c1. 29-210 This invention relates to tools for removing and fitting the back plates of watches, and which is also for so handling watch crystals, particularly those which are of resilient material. The invention is particularly directed to a construction which will engage indented gripping areas of a watch back, and which may be rotated to remove the back piece.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in vertical section showing the assembly with the watch plate engaging lugs moved inwardly to extreme position.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 22, FIG. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 3 is a view in elevation showing the assembly of the upper and lower casings, the lower casing being broken away.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section on the line 4-4, FIG. 3, looking in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the lower casing member, looking toward its bottom.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section through that area of the lug holder radially of its axis and showing a lug in position.

FIG. 7 is a bottom plan view of the lug holder, showing in dotted lines the position of the finger receiving slot.

FIG. 8 is an end elevation of the lug holder reversed in position relative to its lug holding aperture.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the lug holder.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of one of the fingers which actuate a lug holder.

Referring to the drawings, the upper assembly, hereinbefore termed the upper casing is composed of two sections or halves, the upper section being that generally indicated at 1, and it is of cup-shaped formation and includes a top wall 5, a circumferential rim 3 and a skirt 3a. The rim 3 is for hand engagement to rotate the part 1 of the casing and it may be knurled as shown in FIG. 1.

The lower section of the casing is generally indicated at 2 and the same is also of cup-shape and it includes a bottom wall 4. Both the upper and lower cup-shaped parts of the casing may be, like other parts of the device, composed of plastic material if desired, or they may be made of metal. The lower cup 2 is of such internal diameter that the skirt 3a of the upper cup 1 fits within it so that the upper cap may be rotated as well as moved axially within the lower cup, and in telescopic fashion.

Centrally provided in the upper wall 5 of the upper cup 1 is a boss 26 providing a recess or well 6 which accommodates a hexagonal or other non-round nut 7, the well being complementary in shape to the exterior of the nut, said nut being confined in the recess or well 6 by means of a cap 3 secured to the top wall of the upper cup 1 over the recess 6. This arrangement is such, that by rotation of the upper cup 1 the nut 7 will be threadably moved up or down on a threaded stem 9 on which 'it is mounted and which extends centrally and axially through the casing and through the recess or well 6.

Said stem 9 is provided at one end, or at the lower end of the tool, with a hexagonal or non-round head It fitted within the bottom wall 4 of the lower cup 2, thereby 3,145,459 Patented Aug. 25, 1964 maintaining the stem non-rotatively with respect to said lower cup.

Mounted on the stem 9 adjacent to the head end of the same, is a sleeve 11, provided with an annular groove 12 (FIG. 1) that is engaged by the fingers 13. Each of them is in the form of a flat, tapered metal plate having an enlarged head 15 at its upper end terminating in a rounded extremity 14, forming a notch 16. At its opposite end, the head 16 is formed with a nose portion 17 so shaped as to engage with the groove 12 in the sleeve 11 as clearly shown in FIG. 1. This engagement permits a rocking or pivotal movement of each of the fingers. The upper edge of nose portion 17 is curved, which curved portion extends under the concave side of a cupped washer 19 fitted around the threaded stem 9 and confined between the top of the sleeve 11 and a pair of nuts shown respectively at 20 and 21 threaded on the stem 9. A plurality of conical springs 22 are seated on the bottom wall 4 and engage a ring 22 under the nose portions 17 of the fingers 13. These springs bias the fingers to open or spread position.

The adjusting head 23 for the jaws is in the form of a frustro-conical follower having a central aperture 24 fitting around the stem 9 and freely movable up and down thereon. A washer 25 is interposed between the top of the adjusting head 23 and the boss 26.

As will be apparent from FIG. 2, which shows the bottom of the lower cup, the bottom wall 4 of that cup is formed with a plurality of radial slots 27 through which the fingers 13 are extended to project below the bottom wall 4. These slots are of such length as to permit the required pivotal movement of the fingers to thereby enable the fingers to accommodate various sizes of Watch crystals between them. In the drawings, six of these slots and twelve fingers are shown, but this number may be increased or decreased if desired, each of the slots accommodating one of the fingers as shown. In FIG. 1, only two of the fingers are shown for clarity in illustration.

From the structure thus far described, it will be apparent that when the upper cup 1 is rotated relatively to the lower cup 2, the adjusting head 23 will be moved up or down, so that its peripheral flange 28 will engage against the tops of the fingers 13 to move the fingers pivotally toward one another or to permit them to separate under the biasing pressure of the spring 22. The stem 9 is provided with an axial passage 29 and a rod 30 is freely slidable therethrough, the rod being provided at its upper end with a knob 31 forming a finger-piece, and at its lower end below the wall 4, with a conical head 32.

It will be noted that the casing member 2 is provided with spaced ribs 33, FIG. 1, and as adapted to be slidingly received on said ribs and to be removed therefrom, the mounting being frictional, isa cup-shaped casing 34 having channels at 35, the same in number as the ribs 33. The bottom wall of casing 34 is provided with a central aperture at 36, from which outwardly extend a plurality of slots 37 arranged radially of said bottom wall. Into each slot is adapted to be positioned a lug holder 38, which is best illustrated by reference to FIGS. 9 and 6. Each lug holder is formed, downwardly from its top, with an aperture at 39, to receive one of the fingers 13, and its lower wall has an upstanding aperture at 40, FIG. 6, to receive the annular shank 41 having at its lower end 2. lug 42 adapted to engage a lug-receiving recess in the back plate of a watch. The wall of aperture 40 may be channeled to receive a split pressure ring 43, for removably holding the lug member in position.

In FIG. 4 it is shown that casing 34 is provided with six lug carriers, but the number may be varied as desired. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, each lug carrier is provided with channelways at 44, so that the lug carrier may be slidingly held on the bottom wall of casing 34, and it will be understood that in substitution of a split spring pressure member for holding the lug member in position relative to the carrier 38, any suitable means for the purpose may be employed. One reason for the removable feature of the lugs relative to their carrier is that various Watch back plates have variously different tool receiving notches at the peripheral area of each. Therefore the present tool may be accompanied by sets of lug members, for example those which represent watch plate lug recesses most commonly in use. lso, it is seldom that the tool receiving recesses of watch plates exceed six in number, and when in the embodiment shown, the tool receiving recesses of a watch back plate are less than six in number, only those necessary for such a watch plate may be placed in the casing 34, and the remainder placed in non-use.

It is hereinbefore explained how the assembly to which casing 34- is applied, can be operated to move the fingers 13 inwardly against the action of the spring members which engaged them, and in FIG. 1 it has been shown that the fingers may be moved inwardly to extreme position. In FIG. 3 a watch is schematically shown by dotted lines, with its back plate at 46. At 47, recess channels are shown adapted to receive lugs 42, and the top assembly has been operated to move fingers 13 inwardly and to hold the lugs 42 firmly within the channeled recesses 47. At this point the watch, shown generally at 49, may be held by any suitable means, even manually, and the entire assembly above it may be rotated to tree the back plate from the watch.

When the lower casing 34 is removed from the assembly, simply by a downward sliding movement, the fingers 13 will be exposed for action in removal or application of a watch crystal. With the watch supported by any suitable means, with its face upward, and when it is desired to insert a crystal, the upper cup 1 is rotated by finger engagement with its rim 3. This will cause the adjusting head 23 to descend in a manner to pivotally bring the fingers 13 inwardly or toward one another to an extent to cause them to grip the crystal between them, allowing a part of the edge of the crystal to project below the points of engagement by the fingers 13, which projecting portion of the edge of the crystal will fit into the groove in the bezel of the watch. After the crystal is engaged by the fingers 13 in the manner described, the tool is lifted with the crystal engaged by it and the crystal fitted into the groove in the watch bezel.

It will be noted that each of the fingers 13 has a pointed inner edge 41 on its lowerfend and the crystal will be engaged between these edges and firmly gripped between the fingers. It will also be noted that the finger terminals each have a rear or outer sharp edge 42. This edge 42 can be used for cleaning out the groove in the rim or bezel of the watch preparatory to placing a new crystal therein. For removal or" a crystal from the bezel of a watch, the operation is simply reversed. In handling the assembly in a number of cases, before or after action on the back plate of a watch, the device may be employed with suitable lugs, for acting upon watch crystals in the assembly or removal thereof, in which case it will be unnecessary to remove the casing 34 from the uppermost assembly.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

A device for removing and fitting watch back plates and crystals comprising a first casing, a plurality of fingers pivotally mounted in said first casing and in ring formation, said fingers being movable toward or away from the axis of their said ring formation and adapted to engage a watch crystal or a watch back plate between them, an adjusting head axially movable in said first casing and engaging the fingers to move the same, a stem threadably mounted in the first casing and having threaded engagement with the adjusting head to move the same axially of said first casing, a second casing below said first casing and removably held thereby, a lower normally horizontal wall member carried by the second casing and having a plurality of radial slots leading to a central aperture in said wall member, a plurality of lug-holders insertable through said central aperture and movable in said slots, each lug holder having a base wall and a top wall with an open-end aperture in said base wall, and an open-end aperture in said top wall, the latter aperture receiving an appropriate one of said fingers, and a lug removably held in said base aperture of the lug holder for insertion and removal by endwise movement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,469,630 Braun May 10, 1949 2,759,735 Cross Aug. 21, 1956 3,052,906 Shiilman Sept. 11, 1962 3,068,558 Shilfrnan Dec. 18, 1962 

